Purpose

         This is the era of self publishing. Even I have published a couple of books which have an ISBN assigned to it and can even be purchased on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. It is simple to do but what is important is the purpose of the book. I wrote a devotion book based on these devotions. There are however, hundreds of devotion books already on the market so it is not out there to get on the best seller's list. The second book was my autobiography simply because I wanted to leave a printed copy of my life so when people might ask a descendant, “Who was he?” they can have a copy of book. Now that assumes that someone down the road is going to ask the question which granted, may not occur, but in case it does, the book will be there. In the preface of the autobiography you can find the purpose for the book being written. Some books of the Bible have a purpose statement somewhere in the book. Such is the case for the Gospel of John. John 20:30-31 says, “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

         John's Gospel clearly states why it was written and the word “believe” and all of its relative words is mentioned over 75 times in the Gospel of John alone. The entire Bible has about 259 references to the word. The Gospel of John stands out as the “Gospel of belief.” John wrote about the books purpose as he also did in his first epistle in 1 John 5:13. All of the facts about the purpose however, take their meaning in the lives of people like you and me. The last part of the second verse reminds us that we can believe and therefore have life as a result of that belief. John shows us examples of people who believed and it also shows us how important believing is to each and every one of us. People the world over keep looking for some type of satisfaction in this life and outside of the Bible, they can't find anything that satisfies. The write of the Book of Ecclesiastes came to the conclusion that there is no physical thing in this world that will satisfy the spiritual void in his or her life. We look for wealth, power, recognition and even trying to be the best that there is in any one thing but the end result is that thee is no satisfaction. John comes to the conclusion that if you want spiritual life to be real then there is only one recourse and that is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. A person can try to be the best trumpet player, the best tennis player, the best football player or the person with the highest IQ and still in the end, will come up short and will still be looking for the satisfaction in life. I would challenge you to take a pencil or pen and circle every time the word believe, believed, believeth or believes occurs in the Gospel of John then John 20:31 becomes clear. At some point, we all need to answer the question as to whether or not we believe the account that has been presented in the Gospel of John. If you do believe, then you will have life through His Name. Praise God today for His Word and for the offer of salvation.